The present Invention relates to a new and distinct Rhododendron plant, botanically known as Rhododendron hybrida, an Elepidote-type Rhododendron and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘LavJ2011’.
The new Rhododendron plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Dover, N.H. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new freely-flowering Rhododendron plants with attractive leaves and flowers and low temperature tolerance.
The new Rhododendron plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 1990 of Rhododendron hybrida ‘Dexter's Purple’, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with Rhododendron hybrida ‘Florence Parks’, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Rhododendron plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Dover, N.H.
Asexual reproduction of the new Rhododendron plant by softwood cuttings taken in a controlled environment in Dover, N.H. since 1990 has shown that the unique features of this new Rhododendron plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.